Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, has discreetly concluded his divorce proceedings with Nicole Shanahan, an entrepreneur and attorney, amid rumours of her alleged affair with billionaire Elon Musk, as reported by Page Six. The court documents reveal that their divorce was finalised on May 26, 2023, and they will now share both legal and physical custody of their four-year-old daughter.
Shanahan did not oppose the divorce but requested spousal support from the court, according to the court documents. Other matters such as attorney fees and asset division were resolved through confidential arbitration.
Brin and Shanahan began dating in 2015, the same year Brin's divorce from his first wife, Anne Wojcicki, was finalised. They tied the knot in 2018, as per Business Insider. However, they separated in 2021 and started living apart. Subsequently, Brin filed for divorce in 2022, citing "irreconcilable differences".
According to the New York Post, Brin initiated the divorce process about a month after allegations surfaced of Shanahan's brief affair with Elon Musk, a long-time friend of Brin's. Both Musk and Shanahan have denied these allegations.
In response to a Wall Street Journal article titled "Elon Musk's Friendship With Sergey Brin Ruptured by Alleged Affair", Musk wrote on X on July 25, 2022, "Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night. I've only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic."
Shanahan referred to the scandal as "utterly debilitating" and insisted that she and Musk were never more than friends. She denied having a romantic relationship or an affair with Musk. Despite her denial, the Wall Street Journal stood by its reporting, expressing confidence in its sources.
Brin, aged 50, is currently the ninth richest person globally, with a net worth of $118 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Shanahan, 34, is a California-based attorney and the founder and president of the Bia-Echo Foundation, as stated on her LinkedIn profile.